Another one that sank her life savings into a floating retirement home.

Sunday, December 10, 2017
SAN LEANDRO, Calif. (KGO) -- In the East Bay, a woman who sank her life-savings into a floating retirement home, had to watch it sink to the bottom of the San Leandro Marina. While she tries to figure out what to do next, crews are trying to keep leaking fuel from contaminating local waters.

Debbie Herbstreit has only owned the boat for about a month. She was away Sunday afternoon she got an urgent call from the harbormaster that the boat was taking on water and she needed to get there right away.

"I dropped everything and came here and I was praying a little prayer that it would be an inch of water or something," Herbstreit said.

Instead she found the boat half submerged and leaking fuel. She paid $25,000 for it, not to be a weekend diversion, but to be her home.

"My entire life savings. This was going to be my retirement home, because I cannot afford a house in San Francisco and I love the City" she said.

Alameda County Firefighters were on scene placing a boom around the vessel to keep whatever was leaking from contaminating the rest of the marina.

"To contain the fuel is our big concern and making sure nobody's on the boat. In this case there was nobody on the boat," Alameda County Fire Battalion Chief Jeff Kramm said.

Debbie says she wasn't aware of any defects in the boat and has no idea why it sank. But, here in the Bay Area - where even an average home can range in price from the high six to the low seven figures - Debbie thought she had found a steal - a floating condo.

"It was beautiful. Hardwood floors, dishwasher, washer and dryer, a whirlpool bathtub. I had friends say to me, 'wow!'"

http://abc7news.com/womans-flo...san-leandro/2767301/

A great example of being ill prepared for what life has to offer you. I don't know the first thing about boats, and you wouldn't find me trying to sail around the world with 2 people who are "new" to sailing. Seriously i feel sorry for the dog, it had no say in the matter.

quote:

Originally posted by Jelly:
"To contain the fuel is our big concern and making sure nobody's on the boat. In this case there was nobody on the boat,"

Their order of priorities is messed up. Unsuprising, but messed up. My conscience wouldn't have allowed me to phrase that any other way than "Thankfully nobody was on the boat, and (THIS is where the "and" goes, Jeff Jramm) that's always our primary concern. Now our next biggest concern is contain the fuel leak."

That this person felt compelled to mention the fuel first.... Ugh.

24 year old female booked timeshare tours for a living. Her 26 year old boyfriend was an Uber driver.

And that folks, is all you need to know. Oh, and they're from Colorado, a state quickly becoming California-like.

That pretty much told me all I need to know.

They'll be panhandling at an intersection in Florida, hoping to one day finance their life dreams while the rest of us have real jobs and have a realistic grasp on what life requires to survive.

Two useless oxygen thieves who are now swindling people via their online crowd sourced panhandling account. I have no sympathy.

quote:

Originally posted by Elk Hunter:

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
I suspect the underwater obstacle they hit was the bottom.
A 28 footer isn't the size boat that most would want to sail beyond the harbor and sight of land.

How much water would a 28 foot sailing vessel draw, with all that counter weight (keel) under it?

I guess they found out that it was more than they figured on.

That boat draws about 4 foot 10 inches. Got to be going along pretty good to bust the keel/hull joint in a grounding, unless, of course, the keel was ready to fall off in the first place from lack of proper maintenance.

Darwin has a plan.

quote:

24 year old female booked timeshare tours for a living. Her 26 year old boyfriend was an Uber driver.

And that folks, is all you need to know. Oh, and they're from Colorado, a state quickly becoming California-like.

That pretty much told me all I need to know.

They'll be panhandling at an intersection in Florida, hoping to one day finance their life dreams while the rest of us have real jobs and have a realistic grasp on what life requires to survive.

Two useless oxygen thieves who are now swindling people via their online crowd sourced panhandling account. I have no sympathy.

Clue #1 was: they have different last names.

I think they should get together with the two women from Hawaii who tried sailing to Tahiti. They could have a competition to see who f*cked up the worst.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

quote:

...they sold everything they owned to buy a sailboat...

...left Colorado last year after selling off all their belongings, including a car, to buy Lagniappe for $5,000...

...with no savings...

If you had to sell all your worldly possessions plus pony up your life savings in order to afford a $5,000 sailboat, you really need to fire your financial planner.

I'm actually surprised these idiots had $5000 saved.

Most people in the US are clueless about financial planning (and still should NOT be hiring a planner).

https://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/1...-for-retirement.html

"Just how much has the average American family saved up? According to the EPI, the mean retirement savings of all families is $95,776.

But that number doesn't tell the whole story. Since so many families have zero savings and since super-savers can pull up the average, the median savings, or those at the 50th percentile, may be a better gauge. The median for all families in the U.S. is just $5,000, and the median for families with some savings is $60,000.



"The large gap between mean retirement savings ($95,776) and median retirement savings ($5,000) indicates inequality — that the large account balances of families with the most savings are driving up the average for all families," the researchers explained.

When it comes to retirement, the rich get richer and the poor barely scrape by, the EPI reported: "Participation in retirement savings plans is highly unequal across income groups. In 2013, nearly nine in 10 families in the top income fifth had retirement account savings, compared with fewer than one in 10 families in the bottom income fifth."

To see how the size of your nest egg stacks up against your peers, check out the average amount families have saved broken down by age:

Again, due to retirement inequality, the median savings broken down by age is very different.

Whereas the average savings of a family with members between 32 and 37 is $31,644, the median savings is less than $500. At the other end, the average savings of families close to retirement — ages 56 to 61 — is $163,557. The median is $17,000."

I saw a huge collection of woefully unprepared people in boats in my 16th year. Worked on the Snake River boat docks at Lewiston, Idaho.

Had a big 4th of July festival going on the river. Over that 2 day period my partner and I must have pulled 40 boats off the rock bar which was clearly visible, and every one of those folks had been specifically shown where it was and warned about it. Like pissing on a hot rock.

Got real interesting when they managed to actually get across that bar. Of course their engines were not functioning due to sheared pins, stripped props, broken drive shafts, etc.

The interesting part was watching them go into the 8-9 foot breaking waves once they got across the bar. We had to tow every one of them back to the docks.

The guy is married to a RED HEAD!
That explains about 95% of how he got into this mess.

Well, at least whoever sold them the 49-year old boat is happy.

The boat is going down; my first priority would not be my social security card.

" No honey, I've never sailed a day in my life, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night ".

I have little sympathy for these two. They didn't lose much in the grand scheme of things and they are young enough to overcome the loss. They were stupid and bought a shitty boat with no knowledge whatsoever on how to sail it, which is just unbelievably reckless and stupid.

They are lucky they only lost the boat! To many people have wild dreams of living aboard a boat in a tropical paradise but no clue what or how to pull it off.

I lived aboard for 5 years on a 40' sail, in the Bahama's. Before we did we took a boating safety class, learned to read charts, studied cruising guides, did day sails, overnighted on the hook. Learned boat maintenance top to bottom, purchased a life raft, ham radio, at sea engine repair kits, etc.

These guys are luckY to be alive, and should never own another boat!

Sold all their possessions including the car and could only afford a 5k sailboat that needed 5k of work?

Well, that slate didn't need much to wipe.

Lost the sail boat, saved the pug boat.

On the flip side of this, I knew a couple who did it right.

The company I used to work for had a location in Brunswick, GA. There was a couple who were married that worked at that location and they had worked for about 10 years, living on their boat and putting pretty much their entire paychecks away, living very frugally. When they had enough socked away, they took off to sail around the world - they planned on about 3-4 years to do it. They were in their 30's when they took off, I always wondered how it worked out for them. They had lived on their boat for years and had sailed all up and down the coast.

Coast Pilot 5, Ch 5 2017

"Johns Pass, about 3 miles north of Blind Pass, between Treasure Island and Sand Key, affords passage for small craft from the Gulf to the north part of Boca Ciega Bay. A marked channel leads from the Gulf of Mexico through Johns Pass thence north to the Intracoastal Waterway. The channel is reportedly subject to considerable shoaling between Daybeacon 1 and Buoy 3. Extreme caution and local knowledge of the channel conditions is advised. The entrance to the channel is marked by a light and the channel is marked by lights, buoys and daybeacons. In Johns Pass the flood current sets northeast at an average velocity of 2.0 knots and ebbs southwest at an average velocity of 1.5 knots. (See Tidal Current Tables for daily predictions.)

Just a guess, but I suspect the skipper failed to read the Coast Pilot and study the charts.

The keel is held on by seven 3/4"x9" bolts. I wonder what condition they were in after 49 years. John's Pass is probable a better place to lose one's keel than say 40 miles out.

Could be the same boat:

"COLUMBIA 28 - AN OWNER'S RESPONSE
by John Henderson
John is the "Another Opinion - Cruising World Magazine" contact for the Columbia 28 because, he says, "Quite frankly, I'm very fond of the boat." Here's what he has to say:

Since August 1986 when I purchased hull #269 (a Columbia 28 MK II), my wife and I have logged several thousand (give or take a few hundred) miles on Lake Lanier, a 42,000 acre reserviour near Atlanta. We raced for 15 years in a Flying Scot before Lagniappe (#269) and still race now but not as competitively. We enjoy day sailing, cruising, sailing at night and all other aspects of sailing and living in our second home.

Lagniappe has a 9.9 hp outboard in the "well" which I have enclosed with a wood and canvas hatch cover. This keeps the motor out of sight and deadens engine noise, yet provides ventilation and a neat appearance in the cockpit. She has a bimini mounted on the sail tracks, which allow it to move fore and aft (a nice feature). I have an old Taylor folding ladder with mounting brackets on the stern, on the starboard side, and on the starboard bow. The bow mount allows me to nose ashore, then use the ladder to step to dry land or at worse, shallow water.

I have pulled Lagniappe four times to overhaul the bottom. I have painted the hull and topsides, replaced one seacock, and raised the water line slightly. When I reupholstered the cushions, I split the port quarter berth cushion to allow easy access to the battery, etc. I installed a vented door in the starboard quarter berth locker for easy access as well. The large dinette table was replaced with a smaller table with a rounded end to allow easier access and seating. Weep holes were drilled in all lockers to allow drainage to the bilge. I replaced the alcohol stove with a simple propane one and made a top that serves as counter space and a serving tray. I added a foot pump in the galley (my wife still gives me extra points for that jewel).

I installed an anchor line hole fitting (hawse pipe) to allow the forepeak locker to house the anchor rode and chain. Some people use a five-gallon bucket in that locker if the rode is nasty - that keeps the trash from draining into the bilge. We have a cabin stereo with speakers in the main cabin, the v-berth and in my custom cover over the front of the stern/engine locker. Buffett, Marley and my favorite blues artists always sound better on the boat underway or at anchor in a quiet cove.

I understand that Columbia 28's have cruised to Bermuda, the Bahamas, most Caribbean ports and Hawaii. They have crossed the Great Lakes, got lost in the Thousand Islands and been host to millions of romantic moments. Even one was reported to have been knocked down in the infamous Fastnet Storm, took on two feet of seawater but sailed home safely."

LINK